Protect
by PastaLuver
Summary: Prompt by EmpressVicky Katara believes that her twilight fandom is getting in the way of her love for Zuko.


**Day Three - Protect**

**Entry by ~EmpressVicky**

"Why the hell did I rent this movie again?" Zuko grumbled irritated. Katara leaned into his arm without taking her eyes off of the sexy vampire on the television screen.

"Cause I'm your best friend." She whispered back. "Now hush! This is my favorite part."

"_I feel_ _very…protective of you." Edward says brushing his fingertips over her cheek lightly, as if she were a breakable porcelain doll._

"_I don't need protecting…" Bella replies shying away from his ice cold touch._

"Oh Edward," Katara sighed placing a hand over her heart. "You can protect me anytime."

Zuko scoffed and leaned back into the couch. 'What does _Edward_ _Cullen_ have that I don't?' He asked himself silently, watching her swoon over the made up character. 'For one I'm _real_. That's gotta be worth something right?'

Zuko grinned, finding that he had the upper hand over Mr. Edward "Emo Sexy Vampire"Cullen.

"And what are you grinning about? I thought you hated this movie?"

"I do," He replied. "But that doesn't mean that I can't be happy that you're happy right?"

Katara was shocked at his sudden sensitivity. "Yeah," She said, suspiciously returning her attention back to the movie. "Right."

The next day after school, Zuko sat in his car and waited for Katara. Because he was a grade above her they had no classes together and didn't see each other in the halls frequently enough to talk.

When he saw her, he waved her down. He scowled when he saw what she was wearing.

"Really, an Edward T-shirt? You actually wear that thing to school?"

Katara looked down at herself approvingly. "Yes. Why not wear the face of the sexiest man alive to school in t-shirt form?" She had meant it as a joke, but he still replied coldly.

"Because he's not alive."

Katara, taken aback watched as he pulled out of the school parking-lot and into the street, gaining speed as he disappeared out of view. She hung her head while she walked to her bike and didn't look up again until she was safely home.

Her father greeted her warmly when she walked through the door telling her that he'd ordered pizza and it should be here in a few minutes. She nodded and made her way up-stairs to her bedroom.

When there she slammed the door behind her and crashed down unto her bed. She was greeted with the familiar scent of her Twilight sheets covered in photos of the various book-covers. She looked up and around, noticing for the thousandth time the seemingly endless Twilight memorabilia. This time though, there was no pride in her stare, only sadness. She felt rejected, as if Zuko was treating her this way because of her strange fandom.

'Maybe if I can stop being a fan, Zuko won't be mad at me anymore…'

So, all that night was spent clearing her space of everything having anything to do with the Twilight Saga.

The posters were peeled away, action figures taken down from their proud stands and put into boxes with the rest. She exchanged her worn, comfy sheets with scratchy pressed and new ones that made her stomach curl. She cleared her wardrobe of the endless "I'm a Twi-Girl" tees and filled it with pinks, blues, grays and whites, as every other normal teenaged girl she knew.

She didn't notice that, as she did this, tears poured down her face. "It's all for Zuko," She mumbled. "It's all for Zuko."

Zuko noticed the change in Katara's personality. She would never talk about Twilight, only school and the fact that they were best friends, as if she had to remind herself of her many responsibilities. He didn't want to think that she thought that he was a_ job_ but still…he couldn't help but wonder if this dramatic change had been because of him.

"_Because he's not alive." _He'd said. And if he'd turned around, he didn't know what he'd have seen.

Anger? Sadness? Did she understand his sarcasm? Or did she think that he was serious?

"Hey Katara?"

"Huh?" She answered too quickly.

"Are you okay?"

Katara was silent, as if answering his question would betray a sacred oath.

"Yes." She said passively through her teeth. "I am…fine."

He didn't press her any further and accepted her answer happily. Just as any teenaged boy blind with love would.

It was Halloween.

Almost a month ago, Katara had finished her The Ultimate Fan-Girl costume. Now it was with some girl in Alaska who she sold it to so she could go make-up shopping with "friends". She'd never tell anyone that selling it for make-up was her personal equivalent of selling her soul for a pile of sand.

She was going as a dead cheerleader (how original) and was riding her motorbike to a party being held at Azula and Zuko's house.

When she arrived, she was "greeted" by Azula and her cronies Mai and Ty Lee. Azula was dressed in the exact same outfit as her.

"You little tramp!" Mai yelled.

"Yeah! How could you come to Azula's party dressed as Azula? It's like you're mocking her or something!" Ty Lee stomped her foot on the ground making her mini skirt flutter.

Azula merely gave a wave of her hand and Katara was escorted from the premises.

She couldn't bear the embarrassment of returning to the massive estate to retrieve her bike so she walked home.

When her father asked why she was home early she frowned and ignored him dragging her sorry form up to bed. She collapsed a few inches from her destination and rested her ear on the cold hardwood floor.

"Kill me now…" She whispered drifting off into a sleep filled with bats, dogs and halfboolds…

When he couldn't find her at the party, he knew something was wrong.

"Mai," he asked. "Where's Katara?"

She looked as if she'd smelled something bad when she replied: "Yeah. Azula kicked her out. Little bitch wore the same costume that she did."

He raised his eyebrows. "Azula came as The Ultimate Fan-Girl?"

That same look again. "No! Azula came as a dead cheerleader. So did the bitch. But, whatdaya need her for when you have me right?"

Zuko, smelling the alcohol on her breath stepped away and ran towards the front door.

He spotted Katara's black motorbike and picked it up, using her spare keys to rev it up and ride to her house. He knocked on the door and Hakoda let him in saying that he should go check on Katara.

When he went upstairs he found her on the floor, her face wet with tears. The wood floor creaked under his weight as he stopped abruptly and looked around.

He'd seen her room before, but not as it was now.

"I…did…it for you Zuko," She whispered in her sleep. "All for you…"

He now understood. All her changes and strange behavior was because of that one sentence that he'd said nearly over a month before. And he had to make things right.

He picked her up and placed her on her bed, fetching and Edward blanket from the top shelf of her closet and draping it over her body.

"I'm sorry Katara," He said. "I promise you I'll make this right again" He placed a kiss on her forehead and made off through the open bedroom window, leaving her to her dreams.

She awoke in a bed when she'd distinctly remembered falling to sleep on the floor. A note lay on her chest written in Zuko's delicate handwriting.

_Katara,_ it read, _Meet me before school in the meadow. _

_Love, Zuko_

"Love?" She asked confused. Still she was curious about Zuko's intentions and swung her legs out of bed. Her familiar Edward blanket fell to the ground at her feet. _Zuko_.

What awaited her in the meadow was Zuko, clad in the exact outfit Edward wore in her favorite part of the movie Twilight pinning her to a tree branch, brushing his fingertips lightly over her cheek and whispering the words: "I feel very…protective of you." into her ear.

She gasped, not having expected this of all things. Still she went along with it.

"I don't need protecting…" She sighed.

Zuko panicked, thinking that, like in the movie, she'd cower away from him shyly. She didn't.

"But you, sexy, can protect me anytime."


End file.
